Michael J Bird

Book: Greece and Britain since 1945
(Pub: May 2010 - 2nd edition 2014)

A collection of essays includes one about the works of Michael J Bird by David Rice.

The illustration on the cover shows a display in the windows of the Olympic Airways office in London
promoting Michael J Bird's BBC series The Dark Side of the Sun

Now in its second edition the book can also be ordered through Amazon

Radio Times (UK TV Listings Magazine) Each time the BBC screened one of Michael J Bird's creations the Radio Times introduced it with a feature article. The features tended to get shorter as time went on. April 1972 "Dancing in the Streets is Off" by Bob Smyth Lengthy feature introducing *The Lotus Eaters, interviews with the stars and with Michael Bird on location at Aghios Nikolaos. (Pages 52 -55) (Michael Bird hated it and sent a scathingly critical letter to Smyth.)* November 1977 "Piece de Resistance" by Sheridan Morley Lengthy interview with Jack Hedley introducing *Who Pays The Ferryman?, followed by a piece "Island of the Warm Welcome" written by Michael Bird filling in the real life background to Crete's wartime experiences. (Pages 80 - 85) December 1978* "Myth and Mystery" by Russell Miller Lengthy interview with Michael Bird on location during filming of *The Aphrodite Inheritance, plays up the supernatural influences which guided Bird. (Pages 113 - 117) September 1983* "Shivering in the Aegean" by Deirdre Macdonald Single page interview with Michael Bird at his Cambridge home introduces *The Dark Side of the Sun. (Page 7) February 1985* "Deep Waters" by Renate Kohler Single page feature introduces *Maelstrom* including quotes from the stars and Bird. (Page 7)	Photoplay March 1979 "Mike Munn meets the lovely star of THE APHRODITE INHERITANCE" Fairly routine contemporary interview with Alexandra Bastedo, illustrated with three photographs from *The Aphrodite Inheritance. (Pages 54-55) READ THE FEATURE* Cambridge Evening News 15 October 1983 "Man behind the mask of TV menace" by Pauline Hunt The paper's "Weekend At Home" section carries a single page interview with Michael Bird at his Cambridge home talking about *The Dark Side of the Sun* and *The Outsider. (Page 9) The Greek Review International* 26 November 1983 "Joanna Jones Meets Michael J Bird" Interesting interview covers a lot of the same ground as other features but in some more depth. (Pages 22-23) READ THE FEATURE Look and Listen November 1984 "Bird of Evil" by Wendy Barnaby Interview with Bird from an Australian publication talking mainly about *The Dark Side of the Sun. (Pages 44-45) READ THE FEATURE*
Book: Greece and Britain since 1945 (Pub: May 2010 - 2nd edition 2014) A collection of essays includes one about the works of Michael J Bird by David Rice. The illustration on the cover shows a display in the windows of the Olympic Airways office in London promoting Michael J Bird's BBC series The Dark Side of the Sun Now in its second edition the book can also be ordered through Amazon
Book: Zoom in When You See The Tears (Pub: June 2011) is the autobiography of BBC film maker Fred Hamilton. In a long and distinguished career, Hamilton worked on many classic BBC productions including Doctor Who, during the tenure of Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, Z Cars, Out of the Unknown, Doomwatch, Colditz, Paul Temple, Target and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The book, published by Fantom Films, is a collaborative effort between Hamilton and Werner Schmitz. As regular visitors to the MJB website will know, Werner has given me a great deal of help over the years and assisted greatly with my biography of Michael Bird. Werner runs MEDIA Gems excellent Paul Temple Website. Inevitably the new book has an MJB connection - Werner tells me: "the Paul Temple series is covered in detail on pp. 114-130 (with 19 behind-the-scenes images). Bird's episode "Night Train" is covered on pp. 114-5 (although there is no image for that particular episode)." FURTHER DETAILS
Book: Send in the Clowns - The Yo Yo Life of Ian Hendry by Gabriel Hershman. (Pub: April 2013) A biography of the late Ian Hendry tells the story of a great actor destroyed by his own demons. The original star of The Avengers, Ian went on to give iconic performances in films such as Live Now Pay Later, The Hill and Get Carter and TV series such as The Lotus Eaters. Hailed by John Nettles as "a ruined genius" and by Brian Clemens as "Britain's greatest actor", this is a touching story of an outstandingly talented star dogged by tragedy. Gabriel has kindly allowed me to reproduce a PDF of Chapter 12 (The Lotus Eaters chapter) of the book here as a download. Hopefully it will inspire you to order a copy. The book can be ordered from the Lulu publishing website, priced £14.99. It is also available as a e-Book priced £5.99
Radio Tellyscope (Magazine of the Programme Preservation Society) July/Sept 2002 Overview of Bird's work with the BBC by Dave Rice followed by a review and episode guide for *The Lotus Eaters. (Pages 10-13 and 44-48) Oct/Dec 2002* Review by Dave Rice and episode guide for *Who Pays The Ferryman?. (Pages 17 - 21) Jan/Mar 2003* Review by Dave Rice and episode guide for *The Aphrodite Inheritance. (Pages 32 - 36) Apr/Jun 2003* Review by Dave Rice and episode guide for *The Dark Side of the Sun. (Pages 24 - 31) Jul/Sep 2003* Review by Dave Rice and episode guide for *Maelstrom*. (Pages 55 - 65)	Head-on (College Magazine) March 1997 "Another Viewpoint" D Blyde The editor interviews Michael Bird. (Pages 20-21) Cambridgeshire Journal February 2003 "Flights of fancy" by Dave Rice - retrospective on Bird's life and work appeared in his local County magazine (Pages 14 - 17) READ THE FEATURE Book: Michael J Bird - the life and work of the man who created The Lotus Eaters (Pub: 2006) by David Rice FURTHER DETAILS